Driving on the coast of Shikoku

Back in September, we rented a car and drove from Matsuyama down the coast of Shikoku on our way to a cape which is the southern most point of Shikoku. I was very excited to be in a car. Markian drove. I took a bunch of lame picture as we were leaving the city to show I was in a car. So that's why these are kinda random.
A Tunnel! Yes, there are many tunnels EVERYWHERE. Since japan is made up of a lot of mountains you go through plenty of them. I love tunnels!

Traffic was kinda sucking. It took a while to get out of the suburban area.

Markian's driving our Mazda (which come from Hiroshima by the way), and you can see a Honda shop in the background! He was brave to drive on the left side of the road. I sure wasn't going to try it. The roads are really narrow too. Wait till a later post where we're out in the countryside.
Then we stopped for Mos Burger! I love Mos Burger! Had some shakes and chicken nuggets. Cheap and quick!
Back on the road again. Finally out of the city and to the coast.

Isn't it pretty? It reminds me of the oregon coastline. We pulled over and walked along the rocks. Markian (below) is looking for tide pools, cause I told him to, but there really weren't any cool ones.


It was a nice day. Breezy, but it sprinkled off and on. It was a little cooler here than Hiroshima which was still hot at this point in September.

I was so happy to see the actual ocean and not the sea (Hiroshima is on the sea). Having a car was so nice. We could come and go as we pleased, and spend as much time as we want in an area and not worry about missing the last train or the last bus or getting stuck somewhere for 2 hours when there is infrequent public transport (like this area). I really liked Shikoku!

I can still pretend

Remember my previous post about not being able to get naked? So I couldn't. Instead I went back into my hotel and put on the robe you're supposed to walk to the bath house in and ran around in it. I went outside and walked around the bathhouse. Lame I know, but I quite enjoyed it. Markian wouldn't put his on though. It was too short and he was embarrassed cause of that. I told him they would forgive him cause he's a foreigner. Anyway, our yukata's were lame compared to everyone else's anyway. People had cool floral prints and cherry blossoms and birds and all we got was our hotel's logo. I still managed to enjoy myself, regardless of that.

The finale of Ishite-Ji, Temple #51, Part 4

Here is it, the last of my pictures from the most random place ever.

I thought these were so beautiful, but I have no idea what they're for. They'd make very beautiful ornaments for a Christmas tree though.



Above: An overall view of the temple complex outside of the cave.
Below: The temple bell.


Above: These bugs were all around there. They could fly. I chased one till it landed. The colors were so beautiful. Please click on the picture to get a closer look at the detail of it.

Below: A bridge with water under it that was full of mosquito's.

Above: A bamboo forest.
Below. A man wearing a bib riding a fish=awesomeness.

Above: A GIANT sandal. Too big for me I think. I have small feet.
Below: The proper entrance to the temple complex, which we didn't see until we exited...ooopppss....oh well.


Above: A statue that looked like it was positioned like a sphinx so of course I liked it.
Above: The strangest dragon I've ever seen with someone on his head.
Below: A pilgrim? Not sure.
And that would be the end of my random temple experience. I hope you enjoyed it at least half as much as I did, cause that would be quite a lot!

The 2nd Cave @ Ishite-Ji, Temple #51

Yes, we're back from Tokyo and back to work. And yes, this is STILL from back in September at that same temple I've been covering. It's one of my favorite things I've seen here, so I think it's worth showing the entire thing to you. So we walked back through the long narrow cave and found an entrance on the other side to an even narrower long cave that was ever darker. I was scared to go in it. One reason I have so many pictures is because I was constantly using the flash to see where I was going. Above is one of the paintings on the wall that you couldn't see without using the flash. It was really eerie in the dark and the small flickers of light in the cave make the images seem ghostly. They used mirrors to heighten these effects (you can see below how a mirror is used).


Markian walked ahead of me because I was creeped out. Mostly I was afraid of spiders since I had seen SO many huge ones in the well lit areas.





Small figures lined the sides of the cave. The passage seemed to just keep going. Mostly because we were walking so slow because we couldn't see where we were going, and also because we were in awe on the ghostly wall paintings.

Above: I nervously pose for a picture.

Below: the innermost shrine

As you can see it's the same carvings that were seen in the other building after we exited the first cave. Below is the shrine itself. It was so dark it took about 10 shots to get a halfway decent one.






Finally the exit! I keep sneezing like I always do when I come out of a dark movie theater. Ishite-Ji is an awesome temple. I hope to come back here someday.